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-- Offene Kulturen & Freies Wissen --
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11.-13.10.2001
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WOS 2 -- Specials & Partys
CD-ROM Pack, WOS2 Special
Edition: debian GNU/linux 3.0 (pre) plus On the occasion of WOS2, brand-new versions of Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix are being distributed. And because so many have asked for them, we are also pleased to be able to release the proceedings of WOS1 on CD. Besides the full texts of all the talks and discussions, it also contains the complete documentation on video. The CD-ROM includes the following: debian
GNU/linux 3.0 (pre) Debian GNU/Linux is a free Linux system. It was developed by several hundred volunteer programmers throughout the world who worked together via the Internet. Debian's commitment to free software, its noncommercial nature and its open development model are unique among distributed versions of Linux. Upgrading from earlier versions of Debian GNU/Linux to the new version 2.0 (beta) is automatically carried out by the APT package management tool. As is usual with Debian GNU/Linux systems, updating to this version can take place effortlessly, immediately and without the need to reboot the computer. Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (beta) includes not only several updates and new software but also many improvements such as:
KNOPPIX is a compilation of GNU/Linux software running completely off a CD with automatic hardware recognition and support for several graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be set up and applied as a Linux demo, an instruction CD, a rescue system or as a platform for commercial software product demos. There is no need to install it on a hard disk. Transparent decompression makes it possible to store up to 2 gigabytes of user-ready software on the CD. Along with the Debian-based version of GNU/Linux, other "highlights" on the WOS Edition 2.1 of the CD include:
Wizards
of OS 1 -- Open Sources & Free Software WOS 1 documented on this CD ROM was the first conference in Germany that addressed not only the whole range of free software itself but also its culture and business, its philosophy and politics because in the encounter of cooperative and corporate cultures, there is more at stake than the question of who is developing the better software. The CD contains the complete proceedings of WOS 1 with all the video recording, as well as the manuscripts or transcripts of all presentations and panel discussions. The photos and the reports about the individual conference sessions that were created during the conference can be found in the Conference Journal. On the list of Speakers biographical background information and further links are available for all of them. A brief Concept Paper and the Press Echo round up the documentation.
Human Cellular Automaton An Invitation to be Part
of the World's Largest Human Cellular Automaton!! An open invitation to take
part in a massive live game of LIFE. Sacrifice your will in response to stimulus: Imagine the thrill of standing with hundreds of other people communicating according to a set of very simple rules. Your state depends upon your neighbours'. En masse, patterns emerge. The Human Cellular Automata
The human cellular automaton is like a Mexican Wave in two-dimensions. In nineteen sixty-eight the mathematician John Conway invented a particular version of cellular automata called 'Life'. In Steven Levy's book "Artificial Life, the quest for a new creation" his original script is given as follows. "Life occurs on a virtual checkerboard. The squares are called cells. They are in one or two states: alive or dead. Each cell has eight possible neighbours, the cells which touch its sides or its corners. If a cell on the checkerboard is alive, it will survive in the next timestep (or generation) if there are either two or three neighbours also alive. It will die of overcrowding if there are more than three live neighbours, and it will die of exposure if there are fewer than two. If a cell on a checkerboard is dead, it will remain dead in the next generation unless exactly three of its eight neighbours are alive. In that case the cell will be 'born' in the next generation." There are many other forms of cellular automata, with more complicated rules, other forms of emergence and change, further possible states for cells to be in and other dynamics of mutual inter-relation. The version running at WOS is based on Conway's 'Life' because it is fast, simple and infinitely scalable -- there's no excuse not to join in. This is the script:
The Human Cellular Automaton (HCA) is being held at WOS as part of the 'Software as Culture' thread because it provides an entertaining and surprising example of mass collaboration made possible by a set of simple rules. It is a program that is also a game - a momentary microculture based on distributed fun processing. The first HCA was held as part of the Software Summer School last year in London. We took over a small city square and turned it into the slowest, most high-energy, processor for miles. (A heat-sink was provided in the shape of the Ice Cream for Everyone, open recipe project). Two other influences on the project are the short performance scripts of Fluxus artists and the behavioural instruction pieces of Vito Acconci. Both are characterised by short sets of instructions which allow the user to suspend normal behaviour and work or think through some other potential way of organising sound, space, food, manners, words, mutuality and so on. As well as these, it is easy to note similarities with the new types of network dynamics found in political demonstrations. It is rare nowadays for people to simply march from one place to another to be harangued by their leaders. Now it is a question of taking over a space, for the purposes of direct action, festivity and demonstration, to keep moving, and importantly, to keep the crowd networked, communicating and aware of itself, avoiding the police. Like the free software movement, once the script is distributed, the license is formulated, the action which is enabled by it can be carried out by anyone. Further information on cellular
automata can be found at: Andreas
Ehrencrona
Richard Wright: Print {"Hello World"} An interactive CD Primer on Software for Artists and Artists Software "Hello World" has traditionally been the first program you write when you learn a new programming language. It's as though the programmer is uttering their first words in a newly born world of possibilities. How is a creative practice restrained or enabled by a new technology? How do you know what you want to do when you are using a medium you do not understand? This will be a multimedia document designed to introduce a variety of issues pertaining to the impact of software based production on art and design practice. It will use video and interactivity to provide working examples and demos of the points raised. Factors that would otherwise remain esoteric to non technical practitioners but which have a strong influence on the creative process can thereby be made accessible. Volume 1. Programming with a Paintbrush: A Case Study of Production Culture and Media Technology in the Digital Moving Image August 2001, University of Sydney, NSW. When people use a computer system they use what they can see. People tend to adopt the most obvious and apparently easiest working methods instead of referring back to some external theory or a different understanding derived from an alternative system. In this way the computer systems whole design exerts a structuring influence on the artist. A technology then becomes a practice, with different technologies leading to different practices. Although the general concept of non linear editing, digital compositing or hyperlinks may remain constant, our understanding of what they mean in practice changes as our process of working changes. The creative process, the computer systems design, the artist, aesthetic codes and the production environment are all embedded in what we might call the production culture. The technology used in Quantel postproduction systems like Henry and Editbox is ultimately derived from their interactive flight simulators and real-time guidance systems developed in the seventies. Adobe After Effects special effects animation software was derived from software originally developed as a media filing system. These different technological origins combined with different target users to produce two very differently designed postproduction computer systems. Nevertheless, during most of the nineties they coexisted in the industry until by 1998 they were often being used on artistically similar projects although in very different contexts. At this point in the late nineties the situation in the postproduction industry started to change and the two systems began to grow more similar. Newer systems like Discrete Logics Flame family gained ground appearing almost like a hybrid between the two. Although expensive hardware dedicated systems like Quantel are starting to look anachronistic in todays production environment, this is less to do with the advancing desktop technologies that support After Effects and more to do with the changing production culture. The distinction between production companies and facilities houses has weakened requiring less specialised technology, smaller companies are entering the industry and more studios are set up on a project by project basis, needing solutions that require less long term capital investment. These trends are all interrelated with changes from the infrastructure of the media industry to changes in aesthetics and studio practice and have to be understood as a whole. Thus, despite a similar artistic potential Quantel and After Effects developed very different practices and creative processes amongst their users. It is this point in time in the late nineties that we will use to study the design of the Quantel and After Effects systems, just before their situation was superseded by new aesthetic, technological and commercial developments. In this way we can catch a flavour of two contrasting technologies and two contrasting production cultures at the peak of their rivalry.
Ganesha's Project
In spite of the advancing globalization, the era of communication, and the rapid propagation of progress and its side effects a lot of people do not see that the most effective weapon to defeat poverty is - knowledge! A lack of knowledge is the reason for most all of the problems in third world countries like Nepal. Far too many children have to work each day rather than attending school. And most children cannot concentrate on school because they also have to work besides school. Child labour can not easily be prevented because the existence of the working children and their families depend on it. There need to be other ways for the working children to earn money so they can get a chance to learn. Due to globalization, progress is booming in Nepal , too. The people can take advantage of databases, email and the Internet and other benefits of the digital world. However, most people in such countries do not benefit from it. Only those who can already afford these technologies can profit from it. Ganesha's Project will bring outdated computers to a school in Nepal (the ´Shree Bachhauli Secondary School´ in Bachhauli to be precise), install them in a network using "free software" only, and teach the pupils so that they can use and maintain these computers themselves. We are three young people in our twenties and we will be at the school in Nepal for ten months (from October 2001 until July 2002). The network will be supported with help from the outside via the Internet (from Berlin, Germany) -- if possible. Advances in learning of those pupils will be the milestones in the Ganesha's Project -- because it is our goal to have them help us extend their knowledge to other pupils, too. Thus our help may serve as a basis for further help and most of all a help for the Nepalis themselves. If you would like to help us -- we are in need of some more computers. We are in need of computers with a 133 megahertz processor, 32 megabytes of RAM, 15" monitors, hard disk of 1 gigabytes - or better. :-) A CDROM drive would help a lot, too. Thank you for all help (translation by Sven Guckes)
Monolith
GPG Key Signing Party Die BUUG (Berlin Unix User Group) bietet die Gelegenheit, an einer Key-Signing-Party teilzunehmen.
"EXPONENCE | Apparat
vs. Search Engine" mainfloor DE:BUG LABOR - DE:PENDANCE:
Wizards-of-OS-Lounge Free Music Listening, c-space
Atmosphere & Delicious Dishes Eintritt frei! c-base e.V. culture communication carbonite, Rungestr. 20 10179 Berlin-Mitte
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last updated 2001-11-22